Before Lorde began writing music for her Solar Power album, the singer went on a trip of a lifetime. She was able to visit Antarctica, which made her reflect a lot about climate change and how humans interact with nature. Those ruminations eventually inspired the music and concept on Solar Power, but thinking back, Lorde now says she probably “shouldn’t have gone” to Antarctica in the first place due to her trip’s environmental impacts.
The singer recently sat down with Euphoria actress Hunter Schafer for a conversation on A24’s Divine Frequency podcast. The two’s chat eventually landed on Lorde’s Antarctica experience. The singer said actually going there made her realize it was “the opposite” of what she should have done. After being fascinated by the continent her whole life, Lorde admitted she looked at it as “last-chance tourism.” “I had the reaction which you’re kind of not supposed to have, which is like, people call it last-chance tourism, like, ‘I got to go there before it’s too late,’” she said. “And that was my first thought on going to Antarctica. And actually going there and having that experience made me realize, ‘Oh, no. You cannot go around doing this. This is actually opposite of what you’re supposed to do.’”
Despite the trip being “the best five days” of her life, Lorde is now worried about how it impacted the environment:
“I probably shouldn’t have gone to Antarctica. Just this pop star, it was probably kind of naughty to use those resources and burn that jet fuel. But, I wrote this book and the proceeds went to a couple of scholarships for people to do their doctorates in climate science, so I feel like that was a nice way of going back. […] I will never do anything like it again. It was so crazy from start to finish.”
Listen to the full podcast interview here.